Backing amendment bill,Sarna flays SAD

Stating that the amendment bill,seeking direct elections for the president post of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC),has been widely welcomed by all Sikhs,the Sikh body’s incumbent president Paramjit Singh Sarna on Tuesday flayed the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for opposing it.

In a press statement released from New Delhi,Sarna said the direct elections will make candidates responsible and accountable to members of the committee and Sikh voters. “Unfortunately Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal is agitating claiming that it amounts to direct interference of the government in Sikh religious affairs,” Sarna said,adding: “when the CM is agitating against an Amendment in a Gurdwara Act,is it not government interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs?”

The DSGMC president said that the Badal’s real fear was that if the experiment proved successful in Delhi,there would be calls to hold direct elections for the president of the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and that would end the Badal control over the management of the SGPC.

He further accused the Akalis of delaying the DSGMC general elections. “When elections were announced,the SAD filed a petition in the Delhi High Court,and the court stayed the elections. Following an appeal,the stay was lifted but the SAD again filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. In all the petition and appeals,Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee was not a party and the Delhi government had strongly pursued all these cases,” Sarna said.